Bad programmer! Bad, BAD programmer!!

Progress has been made on a volunteer project I'm on. Namely that the decision was made to upgrade to the newer version of a software package, despite the fact that it's still considered to be in testing. My job for the next week or so is to figure out how viable the new version is, what customizations would have to be made to make it ready for prime-time, and generate an estimate of the time involved.

Alas, my very first instinct was to start hacking away (preferably having first squirreled the source code away in a shiny new version control repository). Until I ran into the first medium-sized bug while in the midst of trying to fix a small one. Which it clobbered me that the first order of business was setting up a bug-tracking project so that the folks I'm working for can tune in as the gremlins are discovered.

Just when I think I'm "bearded"--in purely metaphorical terms, nat'cher'ly!--enough to know better, I discover how easily I lapse back into rookie habits. Sigh...